Effects of social class in college
Today, I present two articles related to working class students. First, Claes, Smeding, Carré & Sommet (2024) published “The Social Class Test Gap: A worldwide investigation of the role of academic anxiety and income inequality in standardized test score disparities” in Journal of Educational Psychology. Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:
We conducted three preregistered studies using the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data to provide a worldwide estimation of the standardized test gap between students from lower and higher social classes. We investigated: (a) the degree to which academic anxiety contributes to this gap and (b) the role of country-level income inequality in widening this gap. In Study 1, we used PISA 2003 data (250,000+ students from 41 countries) and demonstrated that anxiety accounts for approximately one-fifth of the performance gap between students with less educated parents and those with more educated parents. Unexpectedly, the social class test gap was weaker in more unequal countries than in more equal countries. In Studies 2a and 2b, we used the PISA 2012 and 2015 data (totaling over a million students from 65 countries and 72 countries, respectively) and differentiated the cultural dimension (parental education, cultural capital) and the economic dimension (economic capital) of social class. Regardless of the dimension, anxiety again accounted for between one-tenth and one-fifth of the performance gap between students from lower and higher social classes. Moreover, (a) the culturally based social class achievement gap was weaker in more unequal than in more equal countries, and (b) the economically based social class achievement gap was larger in more unequal than in more equal countries. Unexpectedly, we also find a robust association between national income inequality and academic anxiety across all three studies. Results are discussed in relation to the multidimensionality of social class and literature on the psychology of income inequality.
Standardized tests purport to measure of skills, achievement, or ability, in a manner uninfluenced by family background, although social class remains a robust predictor of test performance. Analyses of three Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Programme for International Student Assessment data sets (750,000+ students from a total of 70+ countries observed in 2015, 2012, and 2003) showed that academic anxiety contributes to one-tenth and one-fifth of the social class test gap. In addition, national income inequality impacted the social class test gap, in the opposite direction for cultural and economic capitals, as well as increased students’ academic anxiety. This research supports the intricate interplay between microlevel socioeconomic factors, macrolevel economic features, highlighting the need for a comprehensive approach in interventions aimed at addressing the social class test gap, including both individual processes and broader societal considerations.
This is a massive international sample. I find it tragic that anxiety contributes between 10 and 20% of the social class test gap. While it makes sense to me that the economic achievement gap is greater in more unequal countries.
The next study suggests additional reasons why kids from working class backgrounds may struggle in college. Goudeau, Stephens, Markus, Darnon, Croizet & Cimpian (2024) published “What Causes Social Class Disparities in Education? The role of the mismatches between academic contexts and working-class socialization contexts and how the effects of these mismatches are explained” in Psychological Review. The edited abstract follows:
Within psychology, the underachievement of students from working-class backgrounds has often been explained as a product of individual characteristics such as a lack of intelligence or motivation. Here, we propose an integrated model illustrating how educational contexts contribute to social class disparities in education over and beyond individual characteristics. According to this new Social Class–Academic Contexts Mismatch model, social class disparities in education are due to several mismatches between the experiences that students from working-class backgrounds bring with them to the classroom and those valued in academic contexts—specifically, mismatches between (a) academic contexts’ culture of independence and the working-class orientation to interdependence, (b) academic contexts’ culture of competition and the working-class orientation toward cooperation, (c) the knowledge valued in academic contexts and the knowledge developed through working-class socialization, and (d) the social identities valued in academic contexts and the negatively stereotyped social identities of students from working-class backgrounds. Because of these mismatches, students from working-class backgrounds are likely to experience discomfort and difficulty in the classroom. We further propose that, when attempting to make sense of these first-order effects, students and teachers rely on inherent characteristics (e.g., ability, motivation) more often than warranted; conversely, they overlook extrinsic, contextual factors. In turn, this explanatory bias toward inherent features leads (a) students from working-class backgrounds to experience self-threat and (b) their teachers to treat them unfairly. These second-order effects magnify social class disparities in education. This integrated model has the potential to reshape research and discourse on social class and education.